Compelling, bold, and aware, Indonesia’s Papermoon Puppet Theatre has transformed puppetry the way graphic novels changed comics. 

How do we experience loss? How can we hold and appreciate what has been left to us? Puno: Letters from the Sky is a story of Tala, a young girl who is coping with her father’s passing and learning about life and death. 

“Papermoon breaks through cultural barriers that usually separate us from one another, such as differences in language, nation, history, politics, gender and so on. Words can often fail. With its universal touchstones and emotional, beautiful articulation, Puno and Tala's story of separation and grief ultimately joins every human being in a shared space of love, memory, and longing.”  - Geleran.id 

Papermoon Puppet Theatre was founded in 2006 by illustrator, writer, and theatre performer Maria (Ria) Tri Sulistyani and visual artist Iwan Effendi. Based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, in a country with world-renowned puppetry traditions, the expert artists of Papermoon Puppet Theatre extend this form with their mixed-media productions that tell stories about the choices, values, circumstances, and conflicts of everyday life. “Our stories are personal and focus on individuals. From there we can see the bigger issues.” - Ria Sulistyani 

Since their U.S. debut with Center Stage in 2012, Papermoon has shared their work around the globe, created a residency compound in Yogyakarta to host collaborating and visiting artists, and continued to produce Pesta Boneka, a community-based festival for international puppet makers, started in 2008. 

Puno: Letters to the Sky

50-minute non-verbal puppet performance and art installation
For children and adults; age 7+  
Available September 1-October 13, 2025
Half-week and week-long residencies only 

Puppetry and Visual Arts workshops for students (elementary – college) and professionals
College and university classroom visits
No student-only performances
Contextual and thematic educational materials will be available winter 2025.

Travelers

11 on tour: Cast of 5

Venues

Black box or intimate proscenium stages seating 100-500 people (steep audience rake required). Optimal play space: 20’ wide x 20’ deep and 20’ to lighting batten. Black marley, soft goods to enclose the performance space required. Audio playback.

Link to Papermoon Puppet Theatre's Technical Rider

Brilliant, engaging and enthusiastic artists in residence at our campus/community for four days - what a treat! Loved the performance, loved the teaching, loved the company.

 

KATHRYN MAGUET, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF WEIS CENTER, BUCKNELL UNIVERSITY

press

• The Jakarta Post: 'Puno' is Papermoon's message of love and loss
• Gerlan: After watching 'Letters to the Sky' (English Translation) Original version here
• The Huffington Post: Papermoon Puppet Theatre Portray's Indonesia's Darker History

About papermoon

Papermoon Puppet Theatre was founded in April 2006 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia by Co-Artistic Director Maria “Ria” Tri Sulistyani. She has since nurtured, developed, and expanded the company together with Co-Artistic Director Iwan Effendi, a visual artist and Papermoon’s puppet designer. Among other close collaborators, we work with a collective of puppeteers. 

To date, Papermoon Puppet Theatre has created more than 30 puppet productions, visual art installations, and exhibitions, which we have toured to a dozen countries. In 2008, we launched Pesta Boneka, an international puppet biennale that welcomes puppeteers from around the world to our home city, where they can share their work in a community setting.

Papermoon Puppet Theatre believes that anything can come alive. Every creature, every object, every single thing in the world holds life somewhere inside of it. With our performances, installations, workshops, collaborations, and festival, we hope to bring those things to life—through the amazing art form of puppetry, as well as by nurturing the good things around and within us.

Papermoon Puppet Theatre:

• creates original puppet performances on contemporary themes
• makes visual art installations and exhibitions
• engages in collaborative and interdisciplinary projects
• offers workshops and talks for all ages on puppetry and performance making
• produces Pesta Boneka, our international puppet biennale

Papermoon has shared work with audiences around the world, from Japan to The Netherlands, from Australia, and Pakistan to the United States. But our home and our hearts are always in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, where we are lucky enough to be part of a vibrant arts community. 

season 1, 2012 archive

• Papermoon Puppet Theatre Season 1, 2012 Program Notes